Italian political environment

Politics is inherently confusing. If you add to it the Italian flavor, be prepared to enter into another dimension…

Italy has a parliamentary system, like many other European countries. But as usual, Italy has a remarkable complex political environment. There are more than 20 parties. As a result, no party has chance of gaining power alone. So, every single government depends on a sophisticated arrangement of coalitions. You do not need to be a genius to realize that this approach can not work in a place like Italy…

During last April it was elected the new Italian government. It is the 62nd government since 1946. Thus the country had an average of one new government per year. No chance! It is impossible to set-up and pursuit long terms goals within this ever changing context.

Another dangerous element is again present in Italian politics: right-wing populism. The platform of the insidious Lega Nord: you can blame immigrants for every single Italian problem. Just check the campaign outdoor reproduced below. If your Italian is not so good, the text says something like: They sufered with the immigration. Now they live inside reservations! It is evident that Lega Nord foments xenophobia. What to say about racism? Maybe… Fascist Italy? Again?

4 Responses to “Italian political environment”

hi, i’m an italian student (my english is not very good :D) and I completely agree with your document about Italian politi…in fact, with some other students we fight Lega Nord and that new fascism.
but, what about you? are you something of political? maybe we can discute together about italian politics, immigration, fascism etc…
bye

I am glad to hear you and other students are democratically fighting against the new fascism. Some countries have a innate tendency to authoritarianism, and I believe Italy is one of them. Fascism can hurt again Italy, it is a authentic danger.

hi i’m italian and you don’t live there so you can’t understand. it’s true that italian governement is busy but lega nord is in right. in italy the all sorts of criinals are immigrants. roms are all criminals because they don’t work and have beautiful cars and money…why??arabs are racist and in arab school teach to hate italians. they think women aren’t as intelligent as men…is it right???in italy every day come hundreds of irregular immigrants who become criminals!!!

Well, forgive me, but your reasoning is too simplistic. Life is not simple and every time it seems to be so, we are probably wrong.

So, let’s go to the issues, one by one:

I am Italian too. I have dual citizenship. I was born outside Italy and I lived outside until recently. This makes me well positioned to identify Italian idiosyncrasies. For good, for bad. In the bottom line: I live here and I see the way things are.

You said “in Italy, all sort of criminals are immigrants.” Italian girl, let me remember you that Mafia is not a Chinese invention. Italians, real Italians, created a worldwide CRIMINAL organization called Cosa Nostra. And you are saying all criminals are foreigners? I am afraid General Dalla Chiesa was not killed by Al-Qaeda…

Regarding Arabic culture clash with Western values, I am forced to agree this is a huge challenge. I mean, typically we can expect poorly educated Arabs being more inclined to prejudice (against women, for instance). But that is related to low education. It is not related to race, neither to citizenship. If you believe so, you are being as erroneous as the intolerant Arabs you are trying to criticize.